Next-Gen Industrial Networking: 5G and WiFi 6's Role in MES Deployment

This paper presents a practical study on the feasibility of private 5G and Wifi 6 technologies for executing applications employed in discrete manufacturing processes, which is of great interest for the digital transformation of the industry, investigating future technologies to figure the next generations of industrial networks. The study utilizes typical manufacturing operations on two identical systems, one operated on 5G technology and the other on Wifi 6. Based on this setup, results are collected and analyzed, providing important quantitative indicators on the applicability of each technology in the context of the next generations of industrial networks, considering the requirements of reliability, availability, and the ability of the analyzed systems to ensure nominal parameters over critical operations recurrent in the industry.